If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Hybrid View

How did you explain your pregnancy to your children?

When you were pregnant, how did you explain the pregnancy to your other children?

When did you tell them that you were going to have another baby?

When I was pregnant with my second, my first son was only a year old. As he grew, he started to understand there was a baby in my tummy, but I donít think he really understood until the baby came home. I tandem breastfed my older two, so I did try to talk to him a lot about the new baby before she was born. With my third, the older two still did not fully understand it until the baby came home. When I was pregnant with my fourth, my third child was only a few months old. My older two did understand that there was a baby in my tummy. They were both very interested to know how the baby came out, which took a few tries until I was able to explain it to them in the way I thought was appropriate for their age, but still gave them an answer. My oldest automatically decided that the baby must be cut out of a woman's stomach, so I had to try to explain to him that is not how the baby gets out (but sometimes it is--he was fairly confused, as was I. I was not expecting the amount of questions he had). I don't remember when we told the older two, but I did find it helpful to include them in as much as possible. We did take the children with us to the ultrasound, and they were amazed by being able to see the baby. They also liked to touch my tummy and feel the baby kick.

My first two children are 19 months apart so there wasn't any explaining to do. My first was only 10 months old when I conceived my 2nd. It was just a very natural occurance within the family. My husband went to most of my prenatal appointments during my 2nd pregnancy, so my first child went with us and heard the baby's heartbeat each time. She never had any questions.

With the other 3 children, there were never any questions either. All of the children were very involved in each pregnancy, listening to the baby's heartbeat and feeling the baby move in my belly.

i also took my older children to appointments & they would feel kicks etc. It's interesting now though. my eldest 4 are 16, 14, 13 & 11yrs old. Due to my history of m/c we don't tell them until around 12wks or so. The 2 oldest(boys) aren't as excited. they think its odd for me to still be having babies. None of their friends have baby or even toddler siblings. The girls(11 &13) want to know when they can see pictures & if they can pick a name. The next 4 are aged 8,5,2yrs & 11mths. The 8 & 5yr olds(both boys) are excited. it's fairly new to them to have a new baby. As my belly grows the 2yr old will probably rub & kiss it like he did last time & of course the baby has no idea until he's no longer the baby.
I had a great book when i was expecting my 2nd, 3rd & 4th kids. because they were so young(i had 4 under 5yrs) I found this to be the easiest way of explaining what was happening. we would read it every couple of days.